White House presses Congress for expanded spying powers

Walter Pincus, Washington Post

Published
4:00 am PDT, Saturday, April 14, 2007

U.S. National Intelligence Director John Mike McConnell testifies at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on current and future worldwide threats to the national security of the U.S. on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 27, 2007. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)
Ran on: 02-28-2007
Mike McConnell, the new national intelligence director, gives his first public testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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Mike McConnell, National Intelligence director, wants warrant and wiretap powers expanded. less

U.S. National Intelligence Director John Mike McConnell testifies at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on current and future worldwide threats to the national security of the U.S. on Capitol Hill in ... more

Photo: JASON REED

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U.S. National Intelligence Director John Mike McConnell testifies at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on current and future worldwide threats to the national security of the U.S. on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 27, 2007. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)
Ran on: 02-28-2007
Mike McConnell, the new national intelligence director, gives his first public testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Ran on: 02-28-2007 Ran on: 04-11-2007
Mike McConnell, National Intelligence director, wants warrant and wiretap powers expanded. less

U.S. National Intelligence Director John Mike McConnell testifies at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on current and future worldwide threats to the national security of the U.S. on Capitol Hill in ... more

Photo: JASON REED

White House presses Congress for expanded spying powers

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2007-04-14 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- The Bush administration asked Congress on Friday to make more noncitizens subject to intelligence surveillance and to authorize the interception of foreign communications routed through the United States.

Under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, individuals must be associated with a foreign terrorism suspect or a foreign power to fall under the auspices of the FISA court, which can grant the authority to institute federal surveillance.

The White House proposes expanding potential targets to include noncitizens believed to possess, transmit or receive important foreign intelligence information, as well as those engaged in the United States in activities related to the purchase or development of weapons of mass destruction.

The proposed revisions to the FISA law also would allow the government to keep information obtained "unintentionally," unrelated to the purpose of the surveillance, if it "contains significant foreign intelligence." Currently, such information is destroyed unless it indicated the threat of death or serious bodily harm.

The proposed revisions also provide for requiring telecommunications companies and e-mail providers to cooperate with investigations, while at the same time protecting them from being sued by their subscribers. The legal protection would be applied retroactively to those companies that cooperated with the government in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The White House draft offered the first specifics of what Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said Tuesday is needed to respond to "dramatic" changes in communications technology used by intelligence targets in this country.

The proposed changes do not address the controversial intelligence program, initiated in October 2001 and first disclosed in December 2005, of monitoring communications between the United States and another country in which one party is suspected of having terrorist connections, according to senior administration officials.

Also, the White House threatened to veto a Senate version of the annual intelligence authorization bill. The administration primarily opposes provisions that require a response within 15 days to Senate intelligence committee requests for particular documents and reports to all committee members upon the initiation of extraordinarily sensitive matters, under threat of withholding funds. Under current practice, only committee chairmen and vice chairmen are told of such activities.

The White House, in a "statement of administration policy" sent Thursday to the Senate, also questioned the 4 percent funding reduction the intelligence committee applied to national intelligence programs and the threat of prohibiting funding for several classified projects pending reports to the panel.

Saying such provisions are "inconsistent with the need for the effective conduct of intelligence activities ... and legislative-executive comity and cooperation," the policy document said President Bush's "senior advisers would recommend he veto the bill" if it retains the objectionable provisions.